The real stories from inside the F1 paddock

A log-jam at Renault F1

Dany Bahar has knocked a few noses out of joint in Malaysia by suggesting in recent days that Group Lotus should tie up with a global car manufacturer in order to achieve its goal of becoming a rival of Porsche and Ferrari. This may be true, but the thing that Bahar seemed to have overlooked when making these remarks was that the Malaysian government-owned Proton company owns Group Lotus and it was the Malaysians who gave him the job of rebuilding Lotus on their behalf, rather than asking him to suggest possible buyers. Today Group Lotus issued as statement blaming the media for incorrectly interpreting what he said.

“I am happy to confirm that this is now all complete thanks to Proton’s help and together with Proton we can focus on completing the five year business plan to return Group Lotus to profit,” he said. “Despite recent media reports which seem to suggest that we are looking at alternative partners for the future, I’m happy to confirm that this is absolutely not the case. We have an incredible relationship with Proton, they back us 100 per cent and frankly speaking this is really important when you face challenging issues such as securing funding for our business plan. Group Lotus could not ask for a better share holder. Part of the business plan is the joint development of a global small car platform meaning that for the first time in the Proton Lotus history, the relationship will be mutually beneficial. This alone should demonstrate how close we are.”

This statement seems to be the result of heated telephone calls from Kuala Lumpur.

Group Lotus is the major supporter of the Renault F1 team and is committed to providing significant sponsorship to the team for a lengthy period of time. Unfortunately Bahar’s plan to shovel Team Lotus out of the way and use the Lotus name on the Renault F1 cars has failed, following the High Court judgement last week. This means that as things stand Bahar is committed to funding a team that will run cars called Renaults, even though Renault itself does not want that to happen. In order to change the name of the F1 cars, the owners of Renault F1 – purportedly a Luxembourg group called GenII – must secure the support of all of the other F1 teams. Unfortunately, the teams do not want to help because Bahar, the team’s primary sponsor, has a history with several of the teams and they are not keen to help him. Thus Renault F1 cannot change the chassis name to something like Elan Racing, which might be a possible way out of the problem. Nor does it seem that there is any money available to convince Tony Fernandes to give up his plans for Team Lotus.

If Fernandes will not sell – and there is no reason he should unless the money gets to eye-watering levels – Bahar is stuck. GenII is stuck. Renault is stuck and Proton is stuck paying for a team that promotes Renault. And the buck has to stop somewhere.

The word is that Renault is so unimpressed with the current situation that it wants to terminate its engine supply deal next year, leaving the team with the option of Cosworth engines. GenII, however, seems to have some sort of option to acquire Renault’s engine-making facility at Viry-Chatillon, which complicates matters, because while this is a good idea GenII cannot afford to run the F1 team, let alone invest in an engine business. Clearly what is required is more money, but finding that in the current economic climate is not easy.

Proton might decide that the best thing would be to do a deal with Fernandes and let him take over the whole Group Lotus business, which is what he would like to do, which would keep the English sports car company in Malaysian hands, perhaps with the government retaining a minority of the business, and enable the F1 team to be reconnected with the car company. The overblown plans thus far announced could be trimmed to sensible levels and the strategy altered to reflect Fernandes’s ideas about Caterham. The problem with this escape route is that if there is a signed sponsorship deal between Group Lotus and the Renault F1 team, GenII will want the money that Bahar has committed to giving them. Unfortunately, that is not enough to keep the team competitive and other money needs to be found. The option for GenII would be to give up on the Lotus sponsorship and find an alternative backer, thus getting Bahar out of the picture and opening the way for a change of name and other funding. This seems to be the route that offers the best opportunity for the team’s longterm survival.

There are also questions about who actually owns the team. On paper it is GenII, but the purchase was made with borrowed money and further money had to be borrowed to pay the initial lender (which was Renault itself). This explains why the cars carried sponsorship last year from Renault’s banking arm DIAC and then changed the livery to include Snoras, a Lithuanian bank. One assumes that Snoras wanted certain guarantees for such a loan and one can imagine that the shares of the team would have been a suitable guarantee. Snoras is interesting in that it is owned by a man who clearly has a taste for motorsport: Vladimir Antonov having recently bought the commercial rights to the World Rally Championship. He is also the owner of Spyker, which is producing road cars aimed at rivalling Ferrari. This used to run an F1 team and is an investor in Saab, which is run by Victor Muller, who was also involved in the Spyker F1 operation. One can imagine that if the debts have not been paid Antonov might consider a move to protect his investment…

But when you write publicly, i guess there must be a search for proof as much as compassion.

It must be a slow torture for the Bahars of this world, if they do read any written word, just as it is little soothing for us.

I saw this moral in a fil-um (to try to mimic the accent which i often do inadvertently) at the weekend, “Kill The Irishman” was the title.

Several times in that movie, came up the phrase, “A businessman never invests his own money”

Yup, and half the characters got killed.

Why? They did not know whose money they had.

Boys and girls, i swear to you, keep it close and watch your yard, and you do not need someone else’s money.

Try another one. Got a mortgage? So, you do not “own” your own home. Your bank does. They have “your” deeds. This is why my home is a modest place. Do not participate in a frenzy you cannot influence.

This does come back to F1, because if you try to pay for a sponsorship with someone else’s money, you are gambling on the vig, and anyone who has been tapped out of an option trade knows that trading on margin is a dangerous game.

I guess, we at least know the actors. But i do not think there is a playwright.

It’s funny how at the start of this season I was thinking how little controversy (compared to other years in which we’ve been spoilt for choice) there’s been. Now there seems to be tons of stories about to hit.

Dont get me wrong, love the racing, but it’s great having a bit of intrigue between races. I can see why people might get fed up with it, but I think it just adds to the whole drama and spectacle of the sport.

Group Lotus has just been a disaster waiting to happen, as has Renault too.

But all that said, while it’s nice to have a bit of gossip and boo the bad guys I do feel a bit for the talented chaps at the F1 team and the car company caught in the middle and probably feeling pretty nervous about their future.

This almost reads like fiction!…it is amazing how deep a hole Bahar has dug himself into, and all because he didin’t have the foresight to buy the lotus team name from Hunt.

You have suggested that Bahar may be the possible real owner of Renault (behind some front companies), if that was indeed the case, wouldn’t it complicate things even further?…if that is possible.

Im going to have to do a little research on Bahar, since he came into Lotus, he has seemed to me like a snake oil salesman of the lowest caliber (but a damm good one since he sold that insane business plan to the Malaysians). I also know he was involved in the marketing side of Ferrari and Red Bull, but I would like to know what it is that he did to “ingratiate” himself with the F1 community.

What a stunning kerfuffle this Bahar chap has created – perhaps Group Lotus will soon see the folly of appointing him, get rid and go back to Fernandes, asking if he would mind implementing the plan he had for GL in the first place?

I can’t believe that Bahar would have signed up to a seven year sponsorship deal without some sort of poison pill clause in case there was an issue to the rights of the Lotus name, however sure his legal representation was.

I also wonder if the sponsorship money is coming from Lotus or Proton directly? If Group Lotus was sold could Proton end up promoting themselves on the car. GenII I think has a deal to set up a car club/rental scheme in Europe or Russia using Proton products.

So, say the Malaysian government oust Bahar and call in the Fernandes cavalry. He would want to lay hands on the LRGP car, or at least the blueprints, but not necessarily the team infrastructure. But he would want the TV money, but can’t get that without taking on the team in toto?

So he takes on the team, asset-strips everything he wants back to the UK and sells on the Renault entry and the French factory. Or does he sell on the original TL/1Malaysia entry, and the French factory, whcih he could presumably do seperately or together? Always assuming he can find a buyer for either when STR has been for sale for ages with not a nibble.

I love the in depth research that you have done on this story and the more I read it, the more I cant believe it. It was a natural tie up between Group and Team Lotus (cheaper too) but egos got in the way and, frankly I do not understand who approved Bahar’s budget or decision to go to Renault (and use the JPS, not Lotus livery and called it Lotus. Yes it was on a Lotus but the brand was JPS), the BRG and yellow are the Lotus colors the last time I checked, before this nonsense fight got started.
Joe, keep the good work! Enjoy the site very much.

Perhaps dear old Flavio will run back to buy Enstone – he’s got a track record of wheeling and dealing teams. The whole Antonov thing is weird – SAAB is collapsing under the weight of it’s debt, and he’s not doing much. Why buy an F1 team? It clearly didn’t work out for Victor Muller and Spyjer before.

My understanding of the ruling is that Fernandes has the sole rights to the Team Lotus name, but Group Lotus are allowed to use the Lotus name on its own, both for production cars and for F1 cars. This may be an academic point, as any change would have to be approved by a majority of teams (or Lotus Renault would lose any winnings from the year) and that is unlikely to happen.

Although I’m not a great fan of Bahar, I do have to say that I sided with him over the battle with Fernandes; whatever the (slightly complicated) historical business relationship was between Group and Team Lotus, in Chapman’s days, the former, I feel, has greater rights to campaign under the Lotus banner than someone with no historical connection to motor racing, who merely bought the name.

The great tragedy is that this could become such a waste of an amazing team of engineers and their facilites at Enstone. They possess championship pedigree and push the envelope in terms of design. Surely, despite their feelings toward Bahar, teams might be persuaded to agree to a team name change if it prevented a team from disappearing?

It seems that as in F1, having a 5 year plan is a good way of deflecting criticism for 5 years!
I see in this weeks “Autocar” that the ambitious plan to introduce 6 new road cars has started to come undone, the new Elan now being put on ice and the 4 door Eterne looking shaky. Just to keep up the madness Bahar did announce that Lotus would now be building it’s own range of engines! Where the money is going to come from to build a new V6 and V8 engine range is only explained by the increased funds now available by the postponing of the Elan. Sounds like baloney to me as does the claim that the V8 engine will match the Ferrari V8 for power.
I wonder how many blunders and crazy schemes Bahar can be involved with before his bosses pull the plug.

The behaviour of Group Lotus since Bahar got involved has all been a bit murky. I can’t remember anything like it in all the years I’ve been an F1 fan. I guess Toyota’s little adventure is the closest we’ve had to a vanity project in recent years, but they at least committed huge resources to the project and had their own premises and car. It is very puzzling…

Thanks for the insight Joe. Great except one thing.
I do not know which your sources are, but I really doubt Renault will ever sell its Viry factory. That’s ridiculous and NO sens at all. You know, as I do, that’s its racing activities DNA. Even when Renault stopped its involvment in the sport, this factory kept working on several different underground projects which lead twice to the return of the company in the sport. One day Ghosn will leave or will be forced to (his strategy for the company, at least, starts to appear to be nothing but brilliant and it’s no secret he’s not an F1 fan), the economic situation will be better, and Renault will be back in the sport or Le Mans, or WRC. They’ll never sell this factory, I don’t believe it for one second.

Joe; this Antonov chap sounds like an interesting guy. I’d be interested to hear more about him. Buying the rights to WRC – albeit a formula that has been crying out for someone to “do a Bernie” and make it a globally successful product in my view – is a strange move for someone not previously involved in motorsport.

And he’s a chap who created a situation where we have a British company (CPP, in Coventry) building Spyker cars, but a company called Spyker Cars building Saabs. Sounds an ideal guy to get involved with the whole Lotus/Caterham/Renault/GenII/Proton/UncleTomCobbleigh scenario…

Obviously no-one knows, but from scraps from old leaked concorde agreements, I thought the chassis name-change required a unanimous vote only if it was less than five years since any previous name change.

(An assumption perhaps validated by Peter Sauber retaining the BMW Sauber chassis name for that vital fifth year in the 2010 season).

Renault have been Renault since what 02, so I am not quite sure why GenII would be unable to change name and retain their position in the prize money pool.

Joe, Can they not just change the chassis name when entering the 2012 championship or does that still need the agreement of all the teams?.

Also thinking back to Honda/Brawn doesn’t Bernie keep last years money if a team re-enters F1 with a different chassis name?

I wonder. If the Genii car becomes a Lotus-Cossie but can’t change it’s chassis name for financial, or legal reasons, does that mean Renault will get an injunction (super or otherwise) to prevent misrepresentation by this outfit.

All these shenanigans point to the Toleman team going the way of once great Williams.

When you first suggested last year that GL would be dumping Lotus Racing and sponsoring Renault, I thought it was an interesting idea but too mad to actually happen. And your story today seems at least as mad, but who knows?

GL may have got £300M in funding but that doesn’t seem to be enough to save jobs at Hethel:

I suppose if you were being very generous you might say something like: they’re at a point in the product cycle where manufacturing needs to be made more efficient ahead of a ramp-up for new models. But if you weren’t being generous you might say it was because too much is being spent on F1 and LA parties with celebs and not enough on marketing the current range.

I love all these politics in F1. I’m a massive fan and to be able to read things like this just fascinates me.

I’ve followed the Group Lotus & Team Lotus story quite closely and am glad that Team Lotus gets to keep it’s name.

I’m no expert and and I’m sure there are many facts we aren’t privileged to.

I know you’re a journalist Joe, and your postings are mainly unbiased, but I’m curious to know your personal opinion. Do you think Fernandes got justice or do you think they should have been stripped of the name?

Also – the livery of the Renault’s cars this year – was that purely to strengthen its relationship with Lotus, or is there any tobacco sponsorship going down there like Marlboro with Ferrari?

The cherry on top in terms of the comedy would be Lotus-Renault-Cosworth-presented-by-Proton-in-association-with-Lada. I’m just not sure it would fit on the car what with all the random banks that demand space on the car in return for a massive refinancing deal!

Interesting that autosport have been running the “renault loves louts” story as they’re headline for 2 days on the news section. Clearly a lot of people suddenly feel the need to reassure everyone, which is rarely a good sign.

IMO the 2 Lotuses (Loti?) will eventually be reunited under the stewardship of TF, it’s just a question of how long it takes and how messy it gets. In the meantime I’ll just sit back and enjoy watching it all unfold. I’m sure the staff at RenaultGP and Group Lotus will not enjoy the ride quite so much.

Really fascinating, thank you Joe. I hope Mr. Bahar will just go away. It is interesting to note that when Colin Chapman ran Lotus it generally turned a profit. I owned the stock for a while and have most of the annual reports. Why hasn’t anyone else been able to run Lotus at profit? Get rid of Bahar and let Tony Fernandes take it over. He gives the impression he could turn it around.

You heard it here first, folks. I’d wager a fair bit that something very similar to what Joe has laid out will come to pass before too long.

@martynB I’d agree for the most part, however all the action between races in the past were bookended by the races themselves, which yielded quite a bit less excitement overall than the races this season. Given what we’ve seen so far, I’ve no doubt that the 2011 season will go down as one of the best ever, and these relatively minor stories will be but a footnote, excepting the Lotus mess.

But I have to ask…What will happen to the engine supply? In this whole deal, RBR must be making contingency plans if their race-winning engine supply dries up. Granted, new regs coming in, might not be such a big deal after next season, but that’s a lot of money on the table for another manufacturer. Other players might be nudging this issue along, dollar (err, sorry, Euro? Pound?) signs in their eyes. Just sayin.

Bahar hasn’t delivered, end of – I think that’s been well established.
For me, the most important thing here is what the Renault team’s spiral into hyphenated confusion and penny-pinching is going to do to the driver’s market.
I know, its well early in the season to start discussing this, but its getting pretty clear already that the hook from stage right is edging ever closer to Webber and Massa.
And if Kubica’s fit for 2012, he’s got to be the prime target to second Vettel or Alonso above either of the Sauber drivers or even Jules Bianchi.
Okay, there is an argument that you don’t want to upset the apple cart too much with V and A respectively, but I think after this season both RedBull and Ferrari will see the risk is worth it if they can have regular one-two finishes.
With only one driver firing on all cyclinders they may take the driver’s crown, but they risk leaving the constructor’s to McLaren.

It’s funny how the tense changes on Group Lotus funding- at the beginning, it was past tense- 700million Euro had been secured, but now they are “securing” funding. And, as I recall, they have mentioned it in something hovering vaguely between present and future tense, across about six months now. Which would seem to imply that Mr Bahar has not been able to move much snake oil.

Renault terminating its engine supply is of interest. Could this lead to “Infiniti” engines in the Red Bull?? And, Renault/Infiniti financially supporting them, and,somehow divorcing itself from the team bearing it’s name as constructor.

Along with the question of whether Robert Kubica’s rehabilitation will be sufficient to allow him to return to F1, now comes the question of whether there will be a team deserving of his talents.

Looks like Bahar got into a real mess there with GenII and Renault.
When this deal was announced, I thought was meant to be a case of both cooperation in the F1 team but mainly a technological partnership for the Lotus Cars (and Proton?) companies with GenII partners and Renault itself supplying engines to the car companies as well.

Seems not much got of that in the end. I must say it never really made sense to me. The direction they seemed to be taking last year with Russia as a main marked would have made more sense.
But I guess there was not really enough money to be found there, or not by them (migh have gotten Marussia on board?)

Also one wonders, weather the reason GenII do not seem to be pushing for Kubica to return early is not the fact they would have trouble paying his salary!

And it wouldn´t even be called Renault any moe, since it referrs to the chassis. Renault is only engine supplier, and i order to allow the Renault badge to run on the chassis, as I see it on Joe´s article, Bahar needs the other teams permission, which they would be reluctant to do.

Further to my last post this is copied from my local paper the Eastern Daily Press…..

“Up to 99 jobs could be lost at Lotus
By MATTHEW SPARKES, Business writer
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
8:17 PM

Up to 99 Norfolk jobs could be lost as sports car manufacturer Lotus looks to slash staff levels at its Hethel factory to cut costs.

Employees have been informed that their roles could be at risk as Lotus Cars launched a consultation period for the planned cuts. The total number of jobs lost could be as high as 99, though this figure could be reduced as the process continues.

By June 17 the company hopes to have identified the exact number of employees affected and which areas of the business they will be taken from. It has invited offers from any staff members who wish to apply for voluntary redundancy. Those applying for voluntary redundancy would leave the company by July 1, while any forced redundancies would take effect the following week.

Chief executive Dany Bahar said in a letter to staff that there was “a need to reduce headcount in a number of areas of the business”.

The firm conducted an efficiency review which, the letter said, had “highlighted the need for increased improvement in both cost and productivity”.

“It is with regret that we have to enter into a redundancy process. However it is imperative that we realise cost savings and efficiency improvements this year to help ensure the success of Group Lotus in the future. “Whilst we understand that this news will be disturbing to many of you, we ask that you continue to focus on your role within the organisation and delivering to the best of your ability.”

The firm is also conducting a review into working patterns, working hours and terms and conditions of employment.

Group Lotus is a subsidiary of Malaysian business Proton Holdings, which bought a majority stake in 1996, and is itself a parent company which owns car manufacturer Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering.

The only area not affected by the current redundancy process is Lotus Engineering, the consultancy arm of Group Lotus, which carries out development work on behalf of companies around the world including other motor manufacturers.

But Mr Bahar goes on to say in his letter that an ongoing review of that part of the business is not complete and that employees in the department “will be advised of any impact” to them at a later date.

Earlier this year Lotus lost out on £27.5m in funding from the government’s Regional Growth Fund, which could have seen it expand its workforce.

The money had been intended to extend its manufacturing operation in Norfolk.

Earlier this year the company claimed the expansion would create 1,000 jobs in Norfolk, but warned that if it failed to secure the cash then the manufacturing facility could be built outside the UK.

But, following that loss, Lotus Cars managed to source £270m from a syndicate of Malaysian and Chinese banks to fund an aggressive expansion campaign involving the launch of five new car models in just five years.

Blimey, that reads like the plot summary to a gangster film LOL. I don’t know why it never crossed my mind that Proton are paying to sponsor Renault – and this is a state owned company so it’s taxpayer money. What a cock up!

What other people have said though is that I hope the very talented team at Enstone aren’t the ones who ultimately suffer. Anyone for Kubica going to Ferrari?

Joe forgot to tell us that he never bashes McLaren, for example, because of Ron’s bold spot emanating secret powers and the general cleanliness/godliness of the whole operation. Of course, LRGP reminds him first of all of Flav, then Alonso – all bad guys, unlike St. Lewis who must be allowed to overtake anyone. Mean, had it been poor Pastor in Lewis’s position in Monaco, Joe would write how nasty little bastard called Maldonado took LH out of the race.

I guess Force India will get some bashing soon, for being FI and ruining Liuzzi’s promising career, which can’t seem to take off since like 2003 or 2004.

Eagerly awaiting for news about Tony Fernandes to be proclaimed saint who healed a cripple Team Lotus mechanic and Bahar biting Alan Permane’s ear off just to prove how evil he is or maybe setting one of Lotus car factories on fire. The good do whine, aye? Our spies in the paddock and it’s worth noting that…

Actually, Sid, I was a very harsh critic of McLaren in the 1990s – and the team deserved it. But of course that was before your 10 minutes of knowledge. If you are going to make comments, at least show that you have a little knowledge. Otherwise you like ignorant, don’t you?

Bahar’s humanitiy really comes out in this message to his staff at Hethel. (yes I am being sarcastic, read it for yourself) (Lotus Cars is an ex customer of mine, I know many good blokes there will be devastated)

Having confirmed the redundancies and threatened to move production to “abroad” he then goes on to mention a recruiting drive in the near future.

This comes on top of Joe’s news about Genii/Renault needing more moolah.

How long and Bahar go on in this very expensive fashion before the money plug is pulled and he is sent off in disgrace.

Mr Antonov is in quite expansionary mode nowadays – he has just bought Portsmouth FC. Diversification. And AB bankas Snoras is a cosy little vehicle close enough to Mr Antonov’s homeland, and at the same time far away from it by virtue of being incorporated in the EU.

@Silverstone79: I’d like to call the team Lada Group Lotus, with Malaysian tax-money Proudly present Renault Grand Prix, owned by GenII Powered by Cosworth

@Karen: Please do not disrespect Yogi Berra. He was one of the greatest Baseball players of all time.

So it seems that Group Lotus and Renault Grand Prix find themselfs in deadend ally. Turning back will cost them money and jumping the fence even more money.

Buy out Fernandez to give up the Team Lotus name will cost a fortune.
Change the name without support of the other 11 teams will mean they lose a lot of pricemoney-rights that Renault (and previously Benetton) has build up.

Presumably, as both sides effectively lost in this court case over the Lotus name, they both now have very big bills to pay?

(on the layoffs story)

Not good plan to litigate on the expectation you will be made whole because you have a slam dunk case. The slam dunk cases are the worst, because if your opponent is that bad at law but that good at tricking you into believing they are okay people, well, chances are they will not be paying their bills on time.

That bit of insight most recently from my fun life of this week, though who was duped was my good neighbors. It gets me going silly when technical wins mean nothing because you have to find a bigger reason or moral justification of throwing good money and time of life after bad.

But with the Lotus case, no-one got even a technical win. Not that i can see anyhow. That must – for both teams equally – be very not cool for who works there, i mean it is not something you can readily explain, and morale is to my view based on having clear leadership who can tell you what the score is. When it comes to confusing the guys who work with you, i am not partisan for one or the other of the “lotuses”. I am not saying either that the boys and girls in these teams are naive individuals who buy in hook line and sinker what their bosses want to believe, far from it, it’s not a naive sport. But two teams both wondering what their bosses really are on about cannot be cool for F1. It may be logic that TF’s outfit will also have big bills to pay which may hurt, but i am stretching that one a lot.

I think F1 may be the least unionised business and least affected by the vast complexity of UK and European employment law, because those involved just want to crack on, not cling to protections and moaning. The law is mostly very protective of employees, though i often see it working that way for the wrong reasons. Just as i see big companies somehow always write contracts which get around most of it if they want to be nasty. But basically F1 is realistic. Just here, a hundred being told to go, (this “let go” expression makes me ill) for reasons which in my view are result of negligence by their directors, is plain awful, compounded by the fact those who work in this sport are the type who look after themselves, take it on the chin, do not seek to hide behind the 13 step procedures (in UK law).

I also think that the 99 firings is to avoid the 100 number, at which the firees can get collective rights. I don’t know this bit of the law very well, but I think they are slicing and dicing the layoffs. 99 this month. 99 next month. Just never enough to make it a technical mass firing when the whole proper union and ACAS mechanism rightly cuts in to ask what is going on. This is when unions are doing their job. As a private man in business, i totally approve that unions should get involved when you make mass layoffs, because that means someone really seriously messed up and that is beyond just a management decision. We should get to know abotu such events, because 100 men could be the working population oof sa small town. I also know most of my contemporaries in business and a similar scale of work are scared to death to hire anyone because you can get entangled very quickly by intentional slackers. The last case i settled by the way was me acting for an employee, and i think i got that out of court settlement because i identified this kind of technical and human balance conflict affected the employee badly. (They were a friend, i do not practise professionally or offer any services, i was “Mackenzie Friend” as it used to be called, helping out, because they were in a bad pinch) So, it can be messy, but that win made me think you can manage it better. No more tangentials, i merely wanted to illustrate how wierd it all can get, and why a specific number of firings ight have some significance.

Joe, i hope i am not just being morose. But somehow i am not reading good news in F1 today.

Bahar appeals. Or says he will. Noticed that in a publication he bought some ads in not long ago, which i do not think is coincidence.

This could be a bit better fight than before, because i cannot imagine an appeal can be held behind closed doors – there was volumes of previously secret information in the just given decision, all now in the open.

I’m wondering how much influence Bahar has. He is quoted elsewhere as saying he is acting with full support of Proton at the same time distancing them a bit by saying he has an excellent business relationship with Proton, (“there there, be a good boy” is the condescending tone i hear) which i feel is a bit standoffish and “this is my patch gerroff” talk. Surely, this is desperation, by now. But i am always amazed by slick ineffectual managers surviving, they do know something i do not, because they survive without honest results, which is a party trick and a half.

Flav, Bahrain GP, Bahar appealing. If BE has finally gone crackers, i sympathise.

I’ve banged on a bit about whether Bernie is fully compos mentis because what happens when a hugely strong character with no obvious sucessor gets weakened is always chaotic. I still think there’s more sanity in Bernie’s little finger than a whole hill of Bahars and Flavs though.

There must be some irony to the fact i’m reading this because “insomniac” as i effectively jet lagged myself to double shift some work, because if i was close to any of this i’m pretty sure i’d not be getting any sleep.

rpaco, that must suck real bad knowing chaps over there being done in. If anyone needs a right hardcore employment attorney i know just the man, he’s a bruiser and a mate and a complete maverick, quite crackers because undiluted workaholic who’d probably want to hit you if you suggested any kind of “rehab”, but highly effective. Never forget there’s a two month time limit for action which is rarely extended. I’m closer to Bahar’s age myself, so i hope this is not just about age and inexperience, but to me he is a child showing utter disrespect for his betters upon whose work he is glorifying himself. Thanks by the way for waking me up to Joe pointing out the GENII defecit, which somehow i had overlooked, shall re – read properly.

But with the Lotus case, no-one got even a technical win. Not that I can see anyhow.

Bahar appeals. Or says he will. This could be a bit better fight than before.

I think you can take a view here. One could describe it as win-win or lose-lose. Neither side lost its claim to be ‘Lotus’, then again neither side won exclusivity.

Personally, I think the Judge did rather a lot of homework, rather diligently too, and the key decision was that the goodwill surrounding the marque was shared.

Bahar is appealing. He is unlikely to overturn that part of the judgement. So Bahar is attempting to reduce the visibility of the ‘other Lotus’, again by elbowing the entity off the grid.

This time, Bahar says, he is doing it in the interests of F1.

Quote:

‘It is inevitable that the similarity between the names Lotus and Team Lotus cause confusion for the fans, the public at large and the commentators . . . this must be clarified in the interests of F1.’

This issue was already debated in the judgement. Reference was made to the two look-alike Red Bull teams. Every team has two identical cars with different drivers. On the other hand, any member of the public can tell the difference between a green and yellow car and a black car. Especially when the black car has Renault writ large upon it, which is its proper name – not Lotus at all. No confusion there.

“Unfortunately Bahar’s plan to shovel Team Lotus out of the way and use the Lotus name on the Renault F1 cars has failed,”

Yes he failed to stop Tony, but the judge did say that GL can use the name Lotus in F1. Not that he would get agreement to change the name anyway.

The other question is how are Proton getting along at home? Last I heard they were in financial trouble, with poor car sales even in their tilted home market, which was soon to be levelled out. They really need and Impretsa or an Evo, some success in rallying to create an image, something they sadly lack, currently conjuring up a kind of Yugo/Lada/Moskvich/Dacia feeling. This may be completely off the mark, but if so their marketing is to be blamed. (I view from the Philips Marketing principles of 5Ps +S, where promotion is part of the marketing mix, PR is part of promotion)

This article is complete fantasy. It is not based on any facts at all. There is no talk of Renault not supplying engines, there is no question of Group Lotus not paying their bills to GenII, and Joe you have no evidence of heated phone calls from KL. Fantasy.

there is no question of Group Lotus not paying their bills to GenII . . .

I can think of risk managers who might not agree.

Group Lotus is a debt-laden company, with a waiting-to-be-built product it can’t sell right now, which may or may not be proved viable in the marketplace . . . sometime.

In the meantime, it has committed to a Formula One programme which is an enormous drain on the little cash it has.

A new press release from the Renault (GENII) team states that Group Lotus has committed to a seven year sponsorship programme. (20m a year times seven = 140m.)

That is more than the loss-making group received from Proton (100m) and represents almost a third of the money it really needs to develop its (eventual) road cars. In the meantime, it has to service a 380m debt from various Asian banks.

The numbers don’t add up, do they?

Meanwhile, GENII doesn’t have the money to finance the Renault team. It never intended to. If you look at the press release from the team . . .

I have searched for that story in English but all my efforts have come to nought (Or nowt if you’re from up north.). Changing the “fr” to “en” in the address does not work and the list of “Renault” stories posted on the 5th is different in English to that in the French version.
Anyone??
I suppose I could ask my trilingual ex colleague who lives in a cowshed in the French mountains to translate, but he would exercise the same disdain for us uneducated monolingual slobs, as I do for his diy skills (more adventures than skills)

hey, i am going to be such a jerk tomorrow as to let a default summary hit me, so a bunch of nincompoops* can think they won a while, because the set aside grounds are so strong and the whole thing is so out of time anyhow i can play like that, plus i got an earful like Joe gets with sillies on his website, so why not play on my tab . . .

Bahar is just talking. Money is not moving – GENII, and Joe put us on to that – bullshit walks, it does not come back to court, because that is called being a vexatious litigant, which can make you a criminal. Well, i once was a bit sloshed in a copy shop in Chancery Lane and printed myself some cards which said “John (Other John) – Vexatious Litigant, come up and see me sometime” and handed them out at bars. Got some real friends that night, was like catnip.

* Collective noun for lots of nincompoops is properly “an Idiot Of Nincompoops”. Me, 2 years ago, having closed off a lot of rot. (which did not come back)

Renaming the team will not be a problem, Bernie will have a word with the other teams and get it pushed through by pointing out how petty and spiteful it would make them look, which is bad PR and will effect sponsorship.

Copydude
Hi thanks for gist. sorry I don’t use Google or their products, they seem to have the same corporate might as Microsoft (whose products I don’t use either, ). Apart from which Google have promised to give all your details to the US government.